


Goodbye

by OnceUponASunsetDream



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alice Longbottom in the hospital, Gen, Neville is married, they go to see her before she dies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-09
Updated: 2014-04-09
Packaged: 2018-01-18 18:37:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1438624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnceUponASunsetDream/pseuds/OnceUponASunsetDream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They say she was able to utter a few words before she died.</p><p>It should have been impossible but she managed it.</p><p>Alice is dying but her son is there in the end.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Goodbye

**Author's Note:**

> This started out as a project we had to do in English, in like year 9 when English was still fun and it kinda just developed into this. I really hated the idea that Alice and Frank completely lost their minds and never got to see their son all grown up so I gave Alice the chance just before she died. Looking back, that's a little weird.

They say she was able to utter a few words before she died.

It should have been impossible but she managed it.

She sat listlessly in her bed her pale skin which hadn't seen sun for years contrasted vividly with the floral bedspread. Her hair, once a deep chocolate was now a snowy white well before it's time. She looked much, much older than her fifty three years. Her body was withered and wrinkled so much she looked like she was well into her ninety's.

The healers had said that it was a miracle that she had lived so long.

Or a curse that she had been forced to live in her shell of a body for so many long, painful years.

Her husband hadn't lasted as long as she. He had experienced his own final moments twelve years prior. Their son and her mother-in-law had come out of their usual visiting schedule to say goodbye to him.

Alice had barely registered the absence of her husband through her caged mind but she had felt an odd sense of wrongness in her stomach. 

Her wispy white hair fluttered about her head, a cruel parody of an angel's halo in a gentle breeze as the curtains surrounding her bed was moved aside. Alice continued to stare at her clasped hands in her lap and showed no acknowledgement or recognition towards the three figures who entered. 

She didn't move when a large warm hand enclosed her own small cold ones and gently squeezed them. She was pushed gently back onto her pillows but the comforting warm hand did not release hers.   
A soft voice was speaking to her but she couldn't make out the words.

Alice didn't mind.

She didn't mind about much anymore. Alice was the empty shell of the strong, gentle, compassionate woman she had been.

Sometimes Alice had nightmares.

A tall pale woman with wild, elbow-length black locks and cold, mad grey eyes taunted her. Yelled and screamed and laughed as Alice writhed on the floor, in too much pain to scream. She had screamed not long before but now she had lost the strength as the pain increased.

Then her mind snapped.

Alice awoke to the shell of a body and no memories in her mess of a mind.

Alice was drifting.

She could feel herself slipping from her useless body. As she drifted she felt like a heavy blanket was slipping tantalizingly slowly off her. 

She could see again.

An old woman in an emerald green dress, fox fur scarf, a vulture topped hat and a large red handbag sat in a chair to her left. Her stern brown eyes softened slightly as she looked at the young couple to Alice's left. The old woman seemed to be trying valiantly to supress her tears and the couple across from her had no such qualms and let the tears trickle down their cheeks.

The young man was the one holding her hand. He was sitting, like the old woman in a chair by her bed and a young red headed woman stood behind him with one hand comfortingly on his shoulder and the other resting on her rounded stomach.

Alice caught the flash of gold on the woman's left hand and smiled gently.

She didn't know why.

The man intrigued Alice. He had tears slipping down his cheeks, his eyes and hair were both a warm chocolate. He reminded Alice of her husband. She could not recall his features but the man reminded her of Frank all the same. 

The young woman bent down to whisper in her husband's ear. He smiled sadly and nodded. 

Alice caught only one word. 

One name whispered. 

Neville.

Alice wasn't sure why the name meant so much to her but as the crushing fog on her tortured mind lifted a little bit more it came back to her.

Neville was her son.

Alice was glad she remembered her son before she left her body at long last. 

She could feel her hold on her body becoming more and more tentative but she fought. 

She must not go just yet. 

She must say something. 

She must say goodbye.

An errant thought fluttered across her mind. Did Frank get to say goodbye?

She didn't know. 

She knew that she didn't get to say goodbye to him.

But no matter. She would be with him soon enough.

Alice looked up at Neville and read the shock in them. She supposed that he had never seen her eyes so sane. He would never had heard her speak, recognise him or even show emotion. 

It was a heart breaking thought.

She struggled to use the long neglected muscles in her face to form words as she felt herself slipping even more.

She had to do it.

Struggle against her failing and long unused body. 

She forced off the remaining tangles in her mind and spoke to her son for the first time since he was a baby.

She said goodbye.

Everyone said it should have been impossible but she did it anyway. 

Alice Longbottom was able to utter a few words before she died.


End file.
